Farting chickens

Lucas turned five years old back in January and suddenly a whole new can of silly seemed to opened up.

It started with the word chicken a few months ago. Where did this addiction to the word chicken come from? School, of course. There's a game they play in class where the teacher says things like "if you're wearing red grab a block from the centre of the circle". The first kid to get three blocks shouts out "Winner, winner chicken dinner!" and so chicken was born.

One day, Lucas was playing with his sock on his foot and I told him it looked like a sock puppet. He started moving his foot around and decided Chicken Von Schlickin was the perfect name for his little friend. "Ewww, that's Chicken!" is another favourite. Who would have thought the word chicken would pave the way to months of continuous entertainment.

Not only is the word chicken a winner but so are farting noises, the words fart, toot and butt, and anything to do with things that are stinky. We've recently welcomed a new addition to the family -- Hoppy Farty Pants. I forget what sparked this creation.

Steve seems to be getting a kick out of all of this (re-living his youth perhaps) and even fed into the obsession by presenting Lucas with his first ever farting key chain -- a proud father-son moment. I'm just waiting for the whoopee cushion to make an appearance. I'm guessing I better get used to this if Steve still finds it amusing.

I was helping out in Luke's classroom not long ago. The kids were all outside while the teacher and I were inside prepping materials. Lucas occasionally brings things to school (a marker, small toy, notebook) even though I keep telling him that if he has somehow got by me in the morning with something from home that it should stay in his backpack at school. The teacher goes on to tell me how he had brought in a key chain one day and that she would normally tell him to put it away...yadda, yadda, yadda. I felt my face getting red, my heart starting to race and all I could think about was the farting key chain. Let's hope this woman's sense of humour is in check. Then she goes on to say how she thought it was so sweet that Lucas was carrying around a picture of his sister. The vomit that had started to burn the back of my throat began to creep back down as I realized she was talking about the key chain I have of the kids on my keyring. I forgot that I had let Lucas hold it during one of his morning meltdowns. It was the only way to get him on the bus that morning. Phew, another embarrassing moment dodged.

Where The Wild Things Are

One of my most favourite books as a child was Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I forgot all about this book until the other day when I was walking through the kids section in Homesense (love this store). There it was, staring me in the face so I had to buy it. It brought back a lot of memories of all the wonderful books I read as a child (or that were read to me) -- before Dora, Diego and Barbie Princess ever existed.

Pictures in the sky

A bunch of us were hanging out in the front on Friday before dinner watching the kids play. I looked up at the sky and noticed this face looking back at me (or maybe it's just me who can see a head, body and arm). My brain always seems to be in kid mode so I instantly thought the cloud looked like a Tombliboo from In The Night Garden. Does anyone else find this show a bit odd? It's one of those things where you want to look away but you can't. How do people come up with this stuff? This show and Teletubbies makes me wonder if the ideas were created on two different trips....and not the kind where you take a plane to get there.

Snacktime

With Lucas, it was all about the kids music. The second time around we got smart and realized that if you didn't start off by playing kids music, they wouldn't request it. Now we have them singing The Beatles, Blind Melon, Tim McGraw and Kid Rock to name a few. Yes, my kids listen to Kid Rock. Rock on! Isabella had quite the liking for Cowboy by Kid Rock last summer. She still requests it every so often but she's really into Girls Just Wanna Have Fun at the moment.



The Barenaked Ladies released a kids CD at the beginning of this year called Snacktime. I was hesitant to buy it since it is a kids CD but I'm a fan of BNL so I thought I'd make this one exception. I'm glad I did. I think I appreciate the CD more than the kids do. Those guys are just so talented! I'm kind of sad that we didn't get to see the Snacktime concert before Steven Page left the group. Oh well, the kids and I can have our own Tribute To Snacktime concert in the car.

The Barenaked Ladies http://www.bnlmusic.com/

Rock on, Dude!

The kids thought they heard that KISS was looking for some new band members. I think they've been watching a little too much American Idol.

Soap City Prank

This morning, Torontonians were greeted by an overflow of bubbles coming from a fountain in Berczy Park (near the Flat Iron building).

Good Morning, Toronto!

You can read the article here.

I am...

checking out Alphainventions.

Dodging trucks

Holy crap, am I tired. Sooo tired. So completely tired that I'm wired and if I were to lay down right now I'd probably stay awake for hours just staring at the ceiling analyzing every little crack. The only time I've ever felt awake (like the average folk out there) after my MS diagnosis was when I was pregnant with Lucas. I felt 110% even with the horrible heartburn. It was a dream. I was in pure heaven. Then Lucas was born, the heartburn went away, the tiredness came back and so did all my other wonderful MS symptoms. Kind of like being hit by a Mac truck...kapow! It was a sad moment....the moment where I realized that I'll never be the way I used to be before MS took over.

People often ask me what I mean when I say I'm tired all.the.time. I tell them to think of what it feels like when you haven't had enough sleep, you're only getting maybe two hours of sleep every single night or you keep pulling all-nighters and then have to go go go but then never get a chance to catch up on the sleep you keep missing. I feel like that pretty much every day. Oh, what joy!

I do try to rest when I can eventhough I get tired again soon after. I've pretty much turned my daily Oprah fix into my rest period. This way I can never say I didn't get a chance to take a break.

Overall, I just keep on truckin' trying to stay clear of all the Mac trucks heading my way. Keep on truckin'...Keep on S'myelin....get it?! Ya, ya, I know...I'm amusing myself or I'm just slowly going crazy from the lack of sleep (1-2-3-4-5-6 switch...damn you Sharon, Lois and Bram).

Speaking of Sharon, Lois and Bram (think of The Wiggles but in the 70's and early 80's), my mom bought me a record player this past Christmas and gave it to me with all my old records....The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Eddy Grant, Neil Diamond, The Mini Pops and so many more. I was happier than a pig in shit. Such an awesome gift. As I was flipping through the records, I came across a signed copy of a Sharon, Lois and Bram album. It brought back memories. I remember going to their concert at the Seneca College theatre and then getting a signed copy of their album. I must have been 7 years old and thought that was the coolest thing evah! Ah, the memories!

Fave Rave: Iced Cappuccino

It was pretty warm out last week so instead of my usual Latte from Starbucks I decided I wanted a cool drink. I was driving by Tim Hortons and the Iced Cappaccino sign caught my eye. I tried this drink a few years ago and didn't think much of it but the sign said to try it with chocolate milk. Why oh why did I listen. Pure heaven on a warm day! Just don't tell me the nutrition content. What I don't know won't hurt me....shhh!

Let the blooming begin

I finally finished planting the front garden! happy dance! It took me much longer than I thought because first off MS just slows a person down and I couldn't decide on what plants I wanted. There are just way too many flowers I love especially when I get to work with a garden that's in almost full sun (my backyard garden is in shade most of the day...boo hoo). In the end, I found the roses I really wanted. For those who are into roses I planted The Pilgrim (here and here), Viking Queen, Eden Climber (here and here), Morden Blush and Morden Ruby -- all beautiful roses if you're looking for nice ones to plant in your garden. The pictures of the roses are from our other house. I miss that garden.

So, here they are folks...the before and after shots. Let the blooming begin! And, yes, that is a real cat in the second picture sitting ever so perfectly on the front step. Mojo thinks if he acts like a statue I won't see him and make him go inside.

Hopefully my next picture of the front garden will be a blooming one and not a picture of me kicking myself for not watering enough. Which reminds me, I forgot to water the garden today....gah! I better go stick a note to the kitchen cabinet so I remember in the morning. Yes, I'm that person who has a gazillion notes stuck to everything, writes lists on her hands, has papers next to her bed propped up so I can see them first thing when I wake up in hopes I'll remember before I forget again.


BEFORE


AFTER